Power station cigarette lighter plug to boost battery

[undersc0re]

My original post was just inquiring on connecting from the bluetti cigarette light plug directly to the battery ONLY to charge(enough to start), maybe I was not specific that I would disconnect the bluetti power station before trying to start the vehicle….either way like many have suggested I will just tow along another device now to properly charge my vehicle battery in an emergency.

 

[67cj5]

My original post was just inquiring on connecting from the bluetti cigarette light plug directly to the battery ONLY to charge, maybe I was not specific that I would disconnect the bluetti power station before trying to start the vehicle….either way like many have suggested I will just tow along another device now to properly charge my vehicle battery in an emergency.

Sounds like a safe backup plan, Now ya Cookin.

 

[john61ct]

until I can find confirmation on getting a portable power station to charge a car battery on its own.

Anything truly portable, it would be stupid to try to use for that purpose.

There are plenty of cheap pocket-sized jumpstarters out there.

There is no need to **recharge** a Starter battery except from your alternator.

Either the Starter batt or your vehicle charging system needs fixing / replacing in that scenario.

Never use your Starter batt for anything but cranking.

So, other than following these basic rules, if you want further design help, best to outline your overall "big picture" use case.

 

[john61ct]

Standard ciggie sockets are a dangerous abortion, avoid like the plague for anything important, or that you use regularly.

Never more than 5-6A and only for short periods, as in a few minutes. Even then they are risky, an inherently poor design!

Blue Sea has a nice socket design that twist-locks with the matching plug, but will also accept standard ciggie plugs for smaller (
Also the BMW/ Hella/ Merit/ Powerlet "Euro-style DIN" (ISO 4165) style is very robust.

Use Anderson plugs for high amps, for me my standard for almost all power connections.

If you standardize on one of the last two types, there are adapters for guests, temporary use of devices with standard ciggie plugs.

 

[john61ct]

The term "solar generator" has no objective honest meaning, only used by loathsome corporate marketing scammers.

The only thing stopping a small portable DIY powerpak from working perfectly well as a jumpstarter

are lack of knowledge and skillz.

A broken commercial unit could pretty easily be adapted or reverse engineered.

What is **not** practical, is the idea of **recharging** a depleted high Wh battery from a low Wh battery.

You need an actual charge source for that, whether an AC charger or solar controller.

In which case if DCDC conversion is required, the smaller battery could act as a buffer in the process

it is just not a suitable charge source on its own.

 

[jonyjoe101]

I was just pointing out that in a worst case scenario the bluetti can be used to charge a dead start battery. That was the original question. Even if the alligator clips were left on when the battery was cranked over, the bluetti 12 volt socket is fused at about 10 amps, it won't provide more than that. Unless its a bad design no damage will come to it. But in any case, I would remove the alligator clips before cranking over. If the alternative is being stranded in the middle of nowhere, I would use the bluetti or jackery or whatever power station I had to try and get me going.
If my 12 volt 18ah agm jump pack which was at about 12 volts (due to not charged in over a year) was able to charge a dead start battery in under 1/2 hour, any power station should be able to do it.
The thing about jump packs, the day you need to use it in anger, it will probably be at 10 percent.

 

[MiamiC70]

 

[jonyjoe101]

On my van I wired my boost converter through the vehicules cigarette 12 volt receptacle. Thats how I top off my start battery every day. The start battery I'm using is a fullriver high performance 27ah agm. It requires 14.7 volts to fully charge, if I don't top it off after several weeks I start getting slow cranks.
The boost/buck converter I use I set it to 14.7 volts at 2 amps max output. It quickly gets the battery to 14.7 volts in about 10 minutes unless I go several days without using it, and I always leave it on while the engine is cranking over, it has never suffer any damage. Thats why I don't think the regulated output on a power station will suffer any damage if left connected while the starter is cranking. I been using this everyday for the about a year, it keeps the start battery in perfect shape.
As long as the 12 volt receptacle in your vehicle is live with the power off, you can just charge it from there with your power station, no need to use alligator clips on the start battery.

2 amp boost/buck battery charger I use to top off start battery. Input side is connected to house battery, output side goes wired to vehicules 12 volt through the cigarette 12 volt receptacle.